Railway rail joint



March 8, i938. p. P. H. G. SCHEFFERS ZW RAILWAY RAIL JOINT Filed Jan.25, 1937 FEG 1 3 E m q, 3

Patented Mar. 8, 1938 PATENT FFICE RAILWAY RAIL JOINT Petrus P. H. G.Schefers, The Hague, Netherlands, assignor to Jan A. I-ll. Mesters, The

Hague, Netherlands Application January 25, 1937, Serial No. 1?'293 Inthe Netherlands, January 22, 1936 2 Claims.

It is well known in the art that the joint between adjacent railway railsections, which wholly or partly project above the body of ballast,should permit expansion and contraction of the 5 sections so joined.With a view thereto, it is ordinary practice to only moderately tightenthe bolts, by which the fish plates are vforced against the railsections. Moreover, the iish bolts themselves are capable of yielding alittle, so that during the passing of a wheel of rolling stock themeeting ends oi' the rail sections will be slightly displaced, invertical direction, relative to one another. This displacement graduallyincreases owing to wear and tear and also to corrosion of the lishplates and of the rail sections, so that in the long run the poundingand jolting produced by` the wheels passing over the joint becomeobjectionable.

It has been suggested to provide, on either side of the joined railsections, a claw embracing the non-supported ends of the bases of thesections, and to force said claws into clamping engagement with saidbases by rmly drawing them towards one another by means of screw bolts.

Since these bolts: have to be well tightened, the

total frictional resistance offered against eXpansion and contraction ofthe rail section is thus unduly increased, unless the fish bolts areloosened, whereby, however, the operation of the fish plates isimpaired. Other known means comprising wedges have the samedisadvantage.

The object of my present invention is to provide for a reliable railjoint, which permits free expansion and contraction of the rail sectionsjoined by ordinary fish plates, and which nevertheless ensures themeeting ends of the tread portions of said sections to remainsubstantially flush with one another.

With this and other objects in view, it is suggested to provide, in arail joint of the aforesaid type, 'for a flat supporting member engagingthe bottom faces of the bases of the meeting rail sections, secured towhich member are straight guiding elements embracing both bases throughasuitable distance in longitudinal direction. Such a supporting memberpermits free relative sliding movement of the rail sections. When awheel o-f rolling stock passes over the joint so as to cause the end ofthe tread portion of the one rail section to descend, the supportingmember with its straight guiding elements must follow this movement, andas the descending supporting member necessarily exerts a downwardlydirected bending force upon the end of the adjacent rail section, theends of the meeting tread portions remain substantially flush with oneanother. Since the supporting member slidingly engages the railsections, so that during expan` sion and contraction of said sections itdoes no-t exert any clamping action thereon, the wear and y,5 tear ofthe contacting faces will not be appreciable. Moreover, the normal jointprovided by the fish plates will be less liable to get out of order,since the frictional resistance against expansion and contraction of therail sections is 10 comparatively small and the wear and tear reduced.Finally, the sh bolts are less liable to elongation.

The supporting member, used in accordance with the invention, may berigidly secured to the end of one of the rail sections to be joined, forinstance, by bolts, or by bolts and clip-plates, or by claws, butpreferably by welding, so that said member has a sliding fit only withthe end of the other rail section. 20

Similarly, the guiding elements, which have for their duty to embracethe bases of the adjacent rail sections, maybe bolted, but will prei'-erably be welded to said member. Welding these elements in situ offersthe advantage that eX- 25 cessive jamming cannot occur and thatnevertheless said elements and said bases have relatively largecontacting surfaces. Owing thereto, the life of the joint will beextended and chattering is obviated. 30

If the supporting member is rigidly secured to one of the joined railsections, it is effective in counteracting the tendency of the rails tocreep.

In order that my invention may be more readily 35 understood, referenceis had to the annexed drawing, which illustrates, by way of exampleonly, some preferred embodiments thereof.

Fig. l is a side elevational view of the first embodiment. 40

Figs. 2 and 3 are cross-sectional views along the lines II-II andIII-III, respectively, in Fig. 1.

Figs. 4 and 5 are similar sections of the second embodiment.

In the drawing, the adjacent rail sections I and 2 are of normal type,as well as the fish plates 3 and the sh bolts 4.

Provided below the adjacent ends of the rail sections l and 2 is theaforesaid flat supporting member 5, welded as at 6 to section l. Saidmember has a sliding fit with the rail section 2, for which purpose itis provided with guide strips 'l welded thereto as at 8 on either sideof the base of said section so as to engage the top face 55 thereof andpermitting section 2 to slide longitudinally relative t the supportingmember 5.

It will be readily understood that, when a wheel of rolling stock passesover the joint just described, vertical relative displacement of themeeting ends of the tread portions of the rail sections l and 2 iscounteracted by the cooperation of the normal sh plates 3, 3 with thesupporting member 5. Owing thereto, the life of the normal rail joint isextended and the maintenance work considerably reduced.

In accordance with Figs. 4 and 5, the supporting member is formed by aflat tubular body 9, Which, for a given weight, has a great moment ofresistance against bending stresses.

The supporting member (5, 9) may have any suitable cross section andmay, for instance, be provided with two stiifening ribs instead of one,as shown in Figs. 1-3.

In joining rail sections of different heights, the top face of thesupporting member may be stepped, as shown by the dash and dot line I4in Fig. 1, the left hand side portion of which indicates the bottom faceof a rail section having a height exceeding that of section I.

What I claim istl. A railway joint structure comprising in combination apair of meeting rails having like shaped end sections including base andtread portions which are similarly terminated and arranged in anabutting fashion adjacent each other, fishplates interconnecting theends of said rails and arranged intermediate the base and treadportions, an individual flat stiffening member having the flat surfacethereof arranged along the bottom faces of the base portion of both ofsaid rails, the at surface of said stiffening member being wider thanthe base p0rtion of said rails, individual guide elements having theinner edges thereof engaging the upper faces of the base portion of oneof said rails so as to permit relative longitudinal movement onlybetween the guide elements and the rail, said guide elements beingarranged in such a position adjacent the base edges of the rail andconnected to said stiiiening member by welding, and the other of saidrails being connected along the edges of the base portion to said.stifening member by welding whereby the rails may move longitudinallywith respect to each other without relative vertical movement.

2. A railway joint structure comprising in combination a pair of meetingrails having like shaped end sections including base and tread portionswhich are similarly terminated and arranged in an abutting fashionadjacent each other, shplates interconnecting the ends of said rails andarranged intermediate the base and tread portions, means for clampingsaid fishplates to both of said rails comprising bolts eX- tendingthrough said fishplates and said rails, an individual flat stiffeningmember having the at surface thereof arranged along the bottom faces ofthe base portions of both of said rails, individual guide elementshaving straight inner edges which engage throughout their length theupper faces of the base portion of one of said rails so as to permitrelative longitudinal movement only between the guide elements and therail, said guide elements being arranged in such positions and connectedto said stifiening member by welding, and the other of said rails beingconnected along the edges of the base portion to said stiifening memberby welding whereby the rails may move longitudinally with respect toeach other without relative vertical movement.

PETRUS P. H. G. SCHEFFERS.

